“This is my story. Few months before the run, I was really into practice. To be honest, my last run was a 10K run in Talamban and after that, I never had the chance to jog or run until a week before Wednesday of last week. I supposed to run for 45-60 min. long but my heart started to beat fast so I decided to make it to 30 min. only. On the next day, Thursday, I had the same plan but still I could run only for 30 min. because my legs started to numb. On Friday after office work, I went for a recovery walk from barangay pari-an to south bus terminal with a loaded back-pack after which I went home to San Fernando .
On the next day(Saturday ) I took a rest all day long and at that night, I went to talamban where I, my brother and my friend should meet for us to go to the race together.
On the race day, we woke up at around 4 am almost an hour before the gun start which is at 5 am and prepared for our trip to SRP where the event is held. We arrived in the area just after the gun start of the 21K category so I never had the chance to do stretching and warm-up. As the race started, I was really not confident to finish at my target time which is 1 hour and 30 min. On the first part of the race before taking my turn to Maritima Bldg., I started to feel pain in my left leg (calf muscle) so I run- jog-walk until a girl passed me saying “kaya rana hinay hinay lang” so I ran with her pace and I slowly managed the pain. Along the way maybe 4 km away from the start I felt the same pain in my right knee but still I managed to run-jog-walk and with my conscious mind, I started praying “Lord give me more strength bisag up to 10k lang ako na bahala sa 2k” lol… And the power of prayers came. Thanks God I was able to make the last turn near talisay fish port with 1hr and 2min time in my watch and to the way to the finish line is the hardest part for me. My heart started to pound fast and I was running out of breath and the heat of the sun weakened my body… but I didn’t quit. I continued to run-jog- walk to the finish line of the race with a smile upon seeing my timer. I was very happy to see that I finished the race for 1 hour and 19min only much earlier than I expected. I felt so great!
After all those pain, all I can say is that nothing beats the power of prayer with one’s determination to succeed. NO PAIN NO GAIN!”
Harold A. Cabase